


legacy

by random_chick



Category: The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 20:36:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5470073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/random_chick/pseuds/random_chick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wendy Lin is more than the gawky girl we see.</p>
            </blockquote>





	legacy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [apatternedfever](https://archiveofourown.org/users/apatternedfever/gifts).



Wendy Lin was a legacy. For as long as the Project had been staving off the rise of the Ancient Ones, there had been a Lin on the team. Usually in the sciences, though there’d been that one Lin several decades back who’d been a technician in the main control room. The hiring process was secretive at best and sacred at worst, but it was the world’s worst kept secret, basically, that there would be a Lin at all times.

But nobody expected Wendy to be as smart as she was, as good as she was, as dedicated as she was. She threw herself into her work, not minding for a moment that she was starting at the ground level, so to speak. All she cared about was that she was following the family tradition. She loved her family, adored them all, wanted to be the best in their eyes.

She was the first girl, though, in several generations. Her family had never for a moment thought of her, but she had jumped at the chance to prove herself. She was young, motivated, and she wanted to do something that for once in her life gave her a chance to show her family that she was more than just a girl.

And they had taken a risk on her, knowing that if she didn’t pass the tests -- because despite being a legacy, she would still be tested. Only the best and brightest could work in the science division; after all, if their work was going to help stave off the Ancient Ones, they needed to be _right_. There was no room for idiocy, no room for even the slightest mistake.

If Wendy failed the tests, she would be held until the next ritual and thrown to the slaughter beforehand.

Failure was not tolerated.

Only success mattered.

Thankfully for Wendy -- and her family, who’d waited the entire three days of the testing with bated breath and entirely too many prayers to a God who was just laughing at them -- she had passed and passed them well.

She spent days upon end in the lab sometimes, attention locked on the results of one test or another, or the running of yet another test. But her greatest love was putting together the chemical compounds that she was running those tests on. Knowing that her work might be used in the next ritual gave her a thrill that was probably a little bit sick, but she didn’t care.

Wendy wanted to be important, wanted to matter, wanted to have a say in the shaping of the world. And her shaping of the world did not involve the end of it. But she was a quiet girl, a shy girl, and so her say in things would be behind the scenes -- which meant that this was really the perfect job for her.

It had just taken her parents a while to understand that, was all.

But they had, and now things were going more right for her than they had been in a while. No, life wasn’t perfect -- was it ever? -- but it was still pretty good. And “pretty good” on a secret project was a hell of a lot better than “just okay” in everyday life.

She could take it.

She could even take the teasing she got from some of the others outside of the department. The chem department was pretty much universally looked down upon among the other departments, but that was okay. Wendy actually didn’t mind. She could live with being underestimated. After all, if you were underestimated, then nobody ever expected your shocking turn of brilliance. Not that hers would be so shocking -- because hello, certifiable genius -- but still. Principle of the matter.

Anybody who knew Wendy would call her shy, reticent, brilliant but awkward, and withdrawn. And they would be right. But at the same time, she had a driven streak that was a mile wide and went on forever. She supposed it came on account of being the youngest of five -- when you were the youngest, you had to fight for every bit of attention you could get. Her siblings had acted out, or gotten pregnant at a young age in one case, or failed out of college, or a few other things.

Not Wendy. No, not Wendy. Wendy had focused all her energy on her brilliance -- and even that had nearly not been enough to get her noticed to the degree necessary to have her family put her up for testing. They had very nearly gone with her cousin instead. They had strongly been considering him. But Wendy had beaten him out by just a little bit. Only a little bit.

But it had been enough.

It had been enough and now Wendy had the job she wanted, the life she wanted, the everything she wanted. It was rough, hard, and thankless. If they pulled it off, if everything went according to plan, if they did their jobs the way they were supposed to and nobody fucked anything up the way she’d heard stories of, then the world would go on turning and nobody would ever know their names.

But if they fucked up somehow, or if the ritual failed, then the world ended and there was no need to worry about anybody knowing their names because there would be nobody left to hear their names and nobody left to _have_ a name in the first place.

Did the Ancient Ones have names, Wendy wondered as she finished working late one night. She was alone in the lab and her mind couldn’t help but wander. Did the Ancient Ones have names that wouldn’t make the human mind explode as it tried to translate and comprehend? Because some of the texts in the facility library hinted at names, but nothing that could be truly pronounced. It was a good question, she figured. Not that she planned on letting any of the Ancient Ones get close enough to ask. No, thanks.

She was a legacy; she wasn’t _stupid_.


End file.
